


Strangest Things

by notreserenade



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016), Stranger Things - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2018-08-19 17:48:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8219723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notreserenade/pseuds/notreserenade
Summary: Stranger Things, focusing on the main child characters rewritten as young adults.





	1. The Vanishing of Will Byers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will’s bike’s lion on the cold hard ground and Karen Wheeler's casserole becomes highly questionable, yikes. What ever will happen next!? Continue reading to find out!

_— Recommended Song: Crossfire by Stephen **  
**_

  
  
**November 6th, 1983**

  
I’m here, but I’m not.

Everything looks like it usually does. The furniture in the house, the closed doors of unoccupied rooms that has been personalised by my family’s presence, the wooden floor that’s covered by different textured carpets bought on flea markets. I run my hand across the family pictures that my mother has framed in cheap, plastic frames bought at the dollar store. There’s pictures of younger versions of ourselves, giving way to a tinge of nostalgia piercing through my stomach. Normally, and by now, I’d be asking myself where they are.

 

My family.

 

_ Where are they? _

 

But for some reason, my thoughts seems to be occupied with much more absurd questions that doesn’t make any sense to be giving any concern to at the situation that I’m currently in. Why is the floor made of wood? Why aren’t the curtains closed? t’s almost as if it’s a conscious decision to choose not to think of what might have happened to my family.

Or even better, what might have happened to myself.

_Everything looks in place. Except, something feels entirely different._ It’s hard to describe the emotions that I get from staring at the surfaces of what I call home, since this has never happened before. It is as if something is forcing me to have an illusion of my surroundings being alright. But the eery calmness of the way my mind wants me to believe this is, in itself, very out of place. I know, with confidence, that there’s something that’s suppressing the reality I’m in, but I just can’t understand.

It’s like a dream.

You know, but you don’t.

It isn’t until I hear a loud, screeching noise that I wake up from my illustrated reality and back to the memories that I had experienced just moments ago.  The lights, the dark shadow, the door opening by itself. The uncomfortable lump I have in my throat grows bigger as the question I have for myself echoes loudly in my head, making my eyes avert in panic and hands tremble in fear as I hear myself whisper,

 

“Where the hell am I? 

  
  
***  


 

College has always been a vague concept that grown ups seemed to love talking about when the word “future” was brought up in a conversation.

Once being the middle schoolers that Will and his friends were, college was merely a word that described a place filled with depressed young grown ups who lived on caffeine or beer. 

Frankly, college seemed to suck, and it had seemed even more so if it was to prevent the boys from going on their every day adventures as members of their school’s A.V. Club and exchanging theories of a fantasy world filled with monsters and dragons. Simply put, it was only the present that mattered. This idealism was often practised through hours and hours of _Dungeons and Dragons,_ and far too often than not, their concept of time would be lost from the excitement of defending and destroying in their little  structured fantasy world.

It was a Sunday evening, and just like they usually did back in middle school, the boys were playing Dungeons and Dragons to celebrate their acceptances of their respective colleges. But then again, one can most definitely argue that their little celebration is just a mere excuse to play the game again. Or an act of rebelling to the unspoken rule of not being able to be nerdy geeks in college anymore — not that it actually meant anything to them, since this rule was already an established unspoken rule of high school that they already knew of (and wasn't following at all).

“Something’s coming…” Mike says in a half-whisper as the boys were about to reach the end of their ten-hour _Dungeon and Dragons_ marathon, “…something hungry for blood. A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness. It’s almost here.”  
  
Will rolls his eyes, but a smile creeps to his lips. It’s very alike Mike to be narrating whatever was going on during their game. It was cool back in middle school, but as seniors in high school? Perhaps not so much.  
  
”The Demogorgon?” Dustin says with a frown as he smacks his forehead, “God damnit, Mike! We’re so screwed if it’s the Demogorgon.”  
“It’s not the Demogorgon.” Lucas assures Dustin, trying to assure himself along the way.  
“An army of troglodytes charge into the chamber!” Mike bursts out in a crescendo, almost letting himself cackle in excitement.   
  
It’s been quite a while since their last game session. Ever since the boys started high school, their academic work started to pile up more and more and time became much more precious and just not quite enough, unlike in the past when time seemed to be endless and opportunities could be made by themselves whenever.

But now, all that’s left is their graduation, and soon they’re off to college. At this very moment, there is, after four years of hard work, finally nothing more to worry about — except, of course, the potential sabotage of the Demogorgon.

Which, indeed, was what Mike was trying to hide under his sleeve, even adding the comment, “The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering!” to his little role-play. But because time is never enough for seniors in high school, the universe decides to act upon the boys’ destiny by ending their exciting, grand finale with Mike’s mother interruption of telling everyone to go home.

  

***

 

  
At the age of seventeen, one would think that a bunch of boys would be talking about girls and quite possibly alcohol on their way home after a guy’s night (or whatever you’d call it). In the case of Will Byers, his situation is a tad bit different from the statistically normal teenage boy.

But then again, it came to no one’s surprise that his friends and him would religiously live up to the title of of being Hawkin’s Middle School’s biggest geeks throughout high school. A title that they've learned to become quite proud of, considering the fact that they still keep their science tournament trophies in their rooms, regularly polished nicely enough to give shine.

Science has always been the main occupier of Will and his friends’ minds, thus treating science as an open instruction book for science fiction. Everything from supernatural human strength to mystical creatures... everything within a world that wasn’t reality seemed so incredibly exciting and so much more interesting. 

Of course, science in the real world was also very cool — they’d proven their loyalty to nature’s laws by winning first place at science competitions a numerous of times, but quite frankly, nothing would ever quite beat meeting a character from _Lord of The Rings._

Or _The Hobbit_ , as Dustin would add. 

Because the words of Mike’s mother is law, it was time for the boys to go home.  Will, who'd placed his bicycle right next to Dustin, gives his friend a cheeky smile as he senses his friend’s urgency to get on his bicycle as fast as he can.

“Want to race to my place? I’ll lend you my comics.” Dustin offers as he tries to steady his balance on his bicycle, preparing to win. But unfortunately for Dustin, Will was already ahead of him at the second of hearing a mention of being lent a comic, even shouting back, “Any comic?”, as he urgently pedals into the evening darkness.  
  
Dustin pretty much always had the latest issue of the X-Men comic series. It has almost become somewhat of an underground business for Dustin to be lending his up-to-date comics to his classmates in exchange for candy and money. But of course, since that has become the only reason his classmates usually approach him for, he’s learnt to save the most in-shape and iconic comic books for his friends, whom he believes are the only ones who truly appreciates his comics for their plots and character depth anyway, and not for the sole purpose of looking at big boobs and funny faces.

But by the time Will turns around to hear Dustin's answer, it isn’t Dustin whom he’s meeting eyes with anymore. Instead, a creature with no eyes at all faces him with it’s long, lanky body as it makes a inhuman noise from it’s oddly deformed, flowery mouth full of teeth.

Being scared out of his mind, Will drops his bicycle to the cold ground and quickly gets to his feet to run home. Everything happened so fast. Was he seeing things? Will had never been the crazy type of child. Even though his family situation wasn’t the most ideal, it never lead for him to try any things that involved whatever his biological father had been doing (drugs, cigarettes, alcohol). But for the very first time in his life, Will was questioning whether he was somehow drugged. Although that wouldn't be very likely, since he was sure that Mike’s mother wouldn't have put any drugs in the otherwise quite delicious casserole he was offered at their place.

_What the hell was that?_ he thinks, not daring to look back to what he had just saw. The grip of his hands become firm as he almost looses his balance as he does a quick search of his surroundings in attempt to find Dustin. But unfortunately for Will, Dustin was off swearing somewhere else because of his loss to Will in their bicycle race. 

So instead, Will let’s out a nervous, shaky breath and tries to find his way home in the darkness of the evening as he feels the ominous shadow following his shoulder. But luck didn't seem to be at his side on this cold, Sunday evening. None of his family members were home — only Will’s dog was there to yell at random neighbours passing by.

Will had hoped that the... thing,  _whatever it was_ , would get off his shoulder once he'd arrive home. But as if Will felt his inner sixth sense, the eery, chilly fear that made his heart pound was still there, making his feet automatically move towards his little storage house to find a gun.

But not even the most powerful gun held by a highly skilled gunman would be able to kill the monster whom crawls its ways to the walls of people’s homes.


	2. The Weirdo on Maple Street

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike and his friends decides to try adulting in search for Will with Lucas behind the wheel.

  _— Recommended song: Technicolour Beat by Oh Wonder_  

  
  
  
Jim Hopper was not always a man of beer and cigarettes in the morning. Although cigarettes had always been an essential item of choice to calm his nerves throughout the years of being a cop, it wasn't always a way to self-destruct. A form of inevitable destructive thinking that questions the “what if’s” in the life he called his own ate at the happiness that he ended up realizing he took for granted **.** Emotions have always been a very uncomfortable. The crucial pain and trauma that he went through during the seemingly timeless period of his daughter being in chemotherapy eventually drove him into a void of **realisation** that the world was and will only going to be cruel and dark, and no light was to ever be found after the black whole swallowed the light of his world. Eventually, the new-found darkness made him move back to small-town Hawkins, a place of safe haven. A place before his light found him. A life he could be proud be bear.  
  
Ignorance is bliss, and so he self-destructs.  
  
“Chief, you’re late. _Again_.” Flo’, the secretary of the police department, implies as he takes Hopper’s cigarr from his mouth as he puts on his on-duty jacket. “I really don’t understand why you’re never on the clock.”  
  
It was true. It didn’t have to be Monday for Hopper to be late for work. He had to keep his facade of not caring about the world in order to really feel like he’d be able to lock away his emotions that he find to be too overwhelming to bear.  
  
“I told you, Flo'." Hopper says as he rolls his eyes, trying to take back his cigarr from Flo's hand, "Mondays are for coffee and contemplation. It’s only nine in the morning. What _ever_ would've happened with me not being around for an hour or two in the morning?”  
  
Hawkins was a place where nothing really happened. The biggest crimes that were committed in this town would probably be under-age drinking or an owl chasing down ol’ mister Donald during lawn mowing.  
  
Hawkins was a place where time stood still. A place where things seemed to look old and nostalgic no matter how many times the government would be renewing the buildings or letting new merchants open new stores. That toy store from the 50s will always stand tall in the west corner next to the library, and the candy shop near Hawkins train station will always be place for little kids to nag on their parents to destroy their little baby teeth before they don’t get to so anymore.  
  
But this morning was different.  
  
Not everything of this particular Monday was, but the fact that Joyce Byers, Will Byers' mother, had been calling office to report his missing teenage son over twenty times in hope to get Hopper help her look for him. And little did Hopper know, that the morning of this particular Monday would change his life forever.

***

 

People tend to take the smallest things for granted. Being able to make a call to someone that lives far away, having enough frozen waffles in the freezer in case of an emergency, or being able to hang out with of your friends that live nearby are all just tiny examples of situations in which people are more likely to forget that they’re fortunate enough to experience. Small moments such as these will sooner or later become sentimental pieces of memory and wake a tinge of regret of not having to have enjoyed the moment more. Not that one would ever be able to enjoy a small moment that becomes of sentimental worth enough, since, afterall, being young and all means to live for the moment as much as possible.  
  
Will had always been more of the quiet type amongst the boys. Not indifferently shy, but also not very vocally opinionated. However, this didn’t mean that Will wasn’t intelligent enough to feel strongly about something, but rather, he enjoyed being able to be neutral in situations where, for example, his friends’ opinions differentiated from each other rather strongly. This gives himself a chance to think, to analyze, _to understand._ Being able to be in the middle was comforting for Will because, alike his brother Jonathan, he was very self-aware about his likes and dislikes. He might not be adding any strong beliefs on the newest X-Men issue, but that’s because he’s still… well, _thinking._ Will was the type to need time to think through his desert island candy, because quite frankly, _you’re on a deserted island._ A candy that doesn’t cause your teeth to rot during an extended amount of time would be needed to be chosen. His mother always tells him to not be afraid to express his thoughts, and quite frankly, he's not. It's just that, sometimes, it's so much easier to be shrug in reply to things he needs to ponder about to avoid social discomfort of the people around him, even if he knows that his friends would never judge him for it.   
  
But even though it was usually the rest of the boys that were the louder ones, the drastically difference of aura within their group was definitely there — and it wasn’t until now that it became the most apparent on how loud Will’s presence was for the three of them. He had always been a very important friend within their group, but it wasn’t until his disappearance that made them realise that loudness didn’t always come in the form of sound. Sometimes, even silence speaks stronger than words.  
  
“I don’t understand where Will can be.” Caleb says as he furrows his eyebrows with a worried scratch to the head. Despite usually being the most logical one amongst the boys, even he couldn’t think of a reason for Will’s disappearance.   
  
“You know, he could’ve taken the car to visit Jonathan in New York.” Dustin says with a shrug, but which doesn’t do a very good job at masking his confusion and uncertainty of his words.  
  
“Guys,” Mike says firmly as he fidgets with his car keys in his hands, “What if something terrible happened?”

It’s not something that was completely out of question, but it was definitely something that the boys were trying to avoid talking about. Everything from visiting Jonathan in New York (which Dustin already knew was completely irrational and made no sense at all) to Will falling into a hole in the middle of the forest (mind you, the forest of Hawkins wasn’t big enough to get lost in anyway), it felt as if the boys had already brainstormed enough ideas about Will’s disappearance to write a book. And quite frankly, Mike was starting to get antsy. After all, if something really did happen, they had to prepare for the worst and help him. 

But was it a good idea to become involved in something dangerous as a minor who just got his driver’s license a week ago? No, of course not.

 

_But did Mike care?_

Not really. Not if it was to help a friend.

“Shit, what if you’re right.” Dustin blurts out. “We must find him. What if he’s taken to jail? That’d be total bull-"  
  
“- _shit_. That’s utter bullshit, Dustin.” Lucas says as he rolls his eyes. “We all know that Will isn’t the type to _go to jail._ He’s not his dad, after all.”

  
  
_“Let’s find him then.”_

  
  
The moment Mike blurts out those words, his two friends stares at him wide-eyed. _Find him?_ Where were they supposed to start looking? Under Will’s bed? Take a plane to New York? _Search the woods?_ Lucas and Dustin obviously wanted to help, but after Jim Hopper spoke to them with such a stern voice, it just didn’t seem like an option. Hopper’s, _“do I make myself clear?”_ was quite intimidating, after all. But thanks to Mike, the two boys were once again reminded of how little they thought of the words of adults. Sure, adults probably knew more than they did. But did that mean that they were always right? Of course not. They were all sixteen and just recently passed their car licence exams (together, because what _didn’t_ they do together?), and being a teenager with a car didn’t exactly mean that they’re free to do anything they wanted.  
  
But finding Will would be an exception.  
  
“It makes no sense for Will to disappear the day after a day where we just met up. Even less since we know that Ms. Byers didn’t get a call from him or anything. He’d never do that to his mom—” Mikes says hastily as he stops fidgeting his car keys and stands from his chair, already walking towards his beat-up _Ford_  that he got a week ago from his parents as a congratulatory present for passing his driving test.  
  
“—We have to find him. You know, incase he got himself into shit that he can’t tell Ms. Byers about.” he finishes his sentence as he sits at the passengers’ seat as he throws his car keys to Lucas, who catches them in mid-air. With a quick, mindful exchange of a glance between Lucas and Dustin, they both nod in agreement and joins Mike in his _Ford_.  
  
“Thank God Lucas’ driving.” Dustin mutters silently to himself as he earns a glare from Mike. 

 

***

Shaving her head was meant to let her use her powers to the fullest. 

Wearing a hospital gown was supposed to strip her away from materialistic things that would stimulate emotional bonds. 

Being named _Eleven_ was supposed to give her a sense of purpose — almost like a reminder of how important of a subject she was supposed to be. 

  
A girl, a teenager, a human being... all of such things were concepts that were taught to be labels for an individual in order to fit in. Quite frankly, such labels don’t matter. No one needs to conform to such labels, since, after all, following the status quo doesn’t give one anything more than a sense of belonging to a larger amount of people. But what if, as an individual, such concepts are comforting? Such labels allows individuals to relate and form relationships with someone that you’d otherwise never encounter, so it'd only be natural as a human instinct for individuals to be earning for such labels. They might be meaningless on a larger scale, but what's supposed to be meaningful in life, anyway?   
  
Eleven has always stood on the line between wanting to belong and standing out. She wants to belong, wants to make the man she calls “Papa” proud by doing the things he wants him to do in search for his simplest smile and nod of approval. But she also wants to break away and escape to what she doesn’t know about the world by rejecting things she internally feels bad about. “Good” or “bad” doesn’t exist to her, but even so she knows,that only being in tune with her own emotions can lead her through the experiences that she’s forced to go through.  
  
At this very moment, Eleven took a step to the right, and stood just a little to the side of “standing out”. But just like a balanced chemical reaction, the equilibrium that she once had conformed to was now causing a reaction that was too hard for her thin shoulders to bear, forcing her body’s instincts to take flight rather than fight.

  
She runs through the woods with bare feet, feeling the cold ground touching the soles of her feet for the very first time. But having no time to feel ecstatic, she just runs. And runs.

 _And runs._  
  
  
_Because she’s going to get killed._  
  
  
_She went out line._

  
_She’s “bad”._  
  
  
And just as she was about to run across the empty street that seemingly had no cars, she sees a car shining its’ head lights through the dark night, shining at tiny particles that seemed to make time stop as she feels her body give up on running.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been so long since I updated this! Also, the comments I've gotten on the first chapter, man. You guys are so nice. Hopefully I haven't lost my touch on this new chapter though -- giving me feedback on my work truly inspires and helps me out a lot. 
> 
> Question of the day: what are you looking forward to in the following chapter?


End file.
